The Purchase-to-Pay (PtP) process is one of the key processes that supports the day-to-day operations of every entity in HEINEKEN: starting from breweries and ending with our administration offices like HR.

We are proud ambassadors of our beer and cider brands, so let’s start with our heart: the actual beer production process. In order for HEINEKEN brewery to produce beer, we order resources from our suppliers: yeast, barley, cans or bottles; we also need water and electricity.

As part of the purchasing process we procure key ingredients, and key materials and services, so our breweries can brew the best beer and cider in the world. But these are not the only supplies that we as HEINEKEN need to operate: we need office supplies, training services for our employees or cleaning services, just to name a few.

For all of that what we bought, the suppliers issue invoices, which we as HEINEKEN need to pay. And here begins the life of an invoice, which is the core of PtP: from the moment a supplier’s invoice is received, it is checked against the original purchase order and the delivery to our warehouses (does the purchased order match what was delivered?) or other places (i.e. have we received full hours of training that we have agreed with our training provider?), then the  invoice is processed and finally paid to the supplier.

Even if this sounds like quite a short process, you should consider all different types of needs for supplies that rise from running an office and a brewery, for which invoices or bills we receive as well. That’s a great variety of stuff to do: all these different checks, types of report we need to receive, check and process to be able to document the invoices and be able to pay them. 

On top of all that we also need to set up suppliers in our accounting systems, so we can process invoices for them. And we take care for that also as part of PtP. 

We also take care of processing costs and paying expenses that may not be so much related to purchasing at first sight: we take care for recording and settling all travel costs and other expenses of HEINEKEN employees: imagine all those amounts of receipts that i.e. our sales force supplies to PtP to document travels to our customers. This is also part of PtP. 

The PtP process is one of the processes that touches every entity and team in HEINEKEN, so we play a great role to support the day-to-day business of other teams and let them focus on their core roles, while we take care of the HEINEKEN purchases’ administration. All of this makes the work in PtP teams very existing, especially if we consider that collaboration and communication are one of the key competences of our team members.